A new coal mine expansion in southern Utah threatens to undermine our efforts to combat climate change and worse, drive the imperiled sage grouse closer to extinction. And unbelievably it’s the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) that’s driving this dirty energy disaster. Ironically, the proposal to expand the Alton coal mine into prime sage grouse habitats is demonstrating that federal and state officials are eager to abandon commitments to sage grouse conservation to approve a damaging industrial project, which makes the case that the highly touted state and federal plans won’t save the sage grouse and that the Endangered Species Act protections are necessary.
At issue is a major expansion of the Alton coal strip-mine into public lands that provide key habitat for the southernmost remaining sage grouse population in America. The BLM is proposing to auction off nearly 50 million tons of coal that would be stripped from 2,600 acres.
In order to approve the mine expansion, the BLM has to scrap all sage grouse protections in its 2008 Kanab Resource Management Plan, reverse its determination that the lands in question are “unsuitable” for coal mining under federal law and turn the bulldozers and excavation equipment loose on a thin bottleneck of sage grouse habitat that was designated a “Priority Area for Conservation” by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2013.
Approving this project will only doom the local sage grouse population to extinction, and prove once and for all that the sage grouse protections in federal plans aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on.
When the BLM finalized its Kanab Resource Management Plan in 2008, the agency performed a mandatory analysis of which public lands were suitable for coal mining and which lands, on the basis of sensitive resources, were not. The vast majority of the public lands managed by the Kanab office were found suitable for coal leasing. Yet the tract of land proposed for the expanded Alton coal mine was found “unsuitable” for future coal mining for one reason — the presence of important sage grouse habitats.
Among the protections adopted in the Kanab plan were protections for sage grouse that included a moratorium on industrial activities within half a mile of sage grouse leks and prevention of activities that involve either surface disturbance or disruption of sage grouse within two miles of leks. Exceptions to these protections could be granted under the plan, but only as part of a package that prevents major impacts to sage grouse.
In this case, it’s clear that major impacts to grouse can’t be prevented. The BLM has proposed a plan that would leave behind tiny islands of sage grouse habitat — 40 to 80 acres in size, and sometimes smaller — in the midst of the strip mine and along its fringes to serve as a “refuge.” Studies have found that coal strip mining within 1.2 miles of leks is enough to trigger population declines. In the case of the Alton strip-mine expansion, every single acre of the “refuge” would be within 1.2 miles of mining activity. It’s a recipe for extinction.
It’s all the more troubling because everybody seems to be in agreement that the habitat in this area is absolutely critical for the grouse. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has said the area is one of the “key habitats that are essential for sage-grouse conservation.” The state of Utah said the habitat “represent(s) the best opportunity for high-value, focused conservation efforts for the species in Utah.” And of course, the BLM has already declared the area “unsuitable” for mining.
It’s a sad testament to how little progress we seem to be making toward meaningfully conserving the sage grouse. It also makes a strong case that the grouse needs protection under the Endangered Species Act.
To boot, the proposal comes even as our nation is taking steps to curtail carbon and transition away from coal. More mining means more coal burning, which means more carbon pollution and more climate change.
Unless it’s sage grouse extinction and more harm to our climate that the BLM wants, expanding the Alton coal mine should be rejected.
Erik Molvar is a wildlife biologist and directs the Sagebrush Sea Campaign for WildEarth Guardians, a nonprofit organization working to protect wildlife, wild places, wild rivers and the health of the American West.